Vaux , P. & Yexley, L. (1907) When The Eagle Flies Seaward

Patrick Vaux & Lionel Yexley (1907) When The Eagle Flies Seaward

WHEN THE EAGLE FLIES SEAWARD. By Patrick Vaux and Lionel Yexley. 6s. (Hurst & Blackett.) The eagle is the German eagle. and its flight is a naval war against Britain, which ends in the complete discomfiture of the Teutons by land and sea. The book closes jerkily with the sentence, ” Germany as a Sea power had ceased to be.” But this desirable result is not attained by patriotic Britons without terrible loss of life and property, and the authors lose no opportunity of belittling, in genuine Jingo fashion, all who would suggest any reduction in the naval estimates or any rearrangement of the military forces in Great Britain. The animus of the novel against the present Government is undisguised. Yet it would be a pity to let this prevent the reader from enjoying the vivid descriptions of the sea-fights in the North Sea. where the main business of the war is conducted. The lurid pictures of cruisers in action are the choice part Of the book. Where the authors are weakest is in the region of the plot. The German invasion of Britain is not described with verisimilitude. It is not worked into the web of the naval manoeuvres, and even the latter are too episodical. But the reader who wishes his patriotism cheered and his nerves excited may be advised with all confidence to read this novel. He Will not lay it down till he has seen the Dreadnoughts pound the German squadrons out of being. [The Bookman, Vol. 32.195 (Dec 1907): p.147]

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